update april 16th 2018 ~ by Leilani
Today is the 2nd day of the 2nd week of seven weeks. Today is the 9th day of the counting of fifty days from the day of the waving of the Omer on the morrow after the Sabbath.
In Hebrews 3, Paul quotes the Psalmist to give encouragement and confidence to the believers of his day. Saying, “Watch, brothers, lest perhaps there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in withdrawing from the living God. But exhort yourselves each day, as long as it is being called today, that not any of you be hardened by the deceit of sin.”
O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker. For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart as in the day of strife, as in the day of testing in the wilderness. When your fathers tried Me, they tested Me and they saw My work. For forty years I was disgusted with this generation; and I said, They are a people who err in heart; and, They do not know My ways, to whom I swore in My anger, They shall not enter into My rest. Psalm 95:6-11
SO, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,
DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS…” Hebrews 3:15
Update April 13th 2015
All of today’s believers are more blessed than the Apostles. Does that seem incredible to you? It does to me, but in John 20:29, Jesus tells Thomas, “…blessed are they who will not see and yet believe.” I still feel special because of just this one verse. It’s like Jesus is speaking right to me. I didn’t get to see and yet I believe. This is not the only verse or passage that makes me feel like God is talking right to me, just one small one of many.
That is the Blessing
For me one of the many blessings, is the faith He gives us to believe. Paul tells us that God will reward those who seek Him in faith. He also says that we can have confidence to approach God without fear of rejection. John says that we can Know that we have eternal life!
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:13
Original Post April 16th 2012
23 Abib/Nissan 31 AD
After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus *came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then He *said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus *said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”John 20:26-29
I remember reading this passage as a new Christian for the first time, “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed”, and thinking, Jesus is talking about me! Wow that still blows me away every time I read it!
Have you ever been called, or felt like, a “doubting Thomas”? We just watched ‘The Ten Commandments’ the other night, and Moses seems almost obsessed with his desire to see and hear God for himself. In the Bible we read that even after all his “face to face” time with God, Moses kept striving to have more of God (Exodus 33:13-23) In the beginning of the movie, Moses comes across as a doubter – poetic license maybe. But I see that God is not unwilling to prove Himself to us. What parent doesn’t want their children to beg them to have more time, more hugs, more love? I think the Father loves to have us beg for more. Jesus says, “Keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. Matt 7:7 CJB
There is a third-century work, the Acts of Thomas, thought by most scholars to have originated in Syrian Christianity. It tells how Judas Thomas, “Twin of the Messiah’, was given India when the apostles divided the world by casting lots. Thomas, though went as a slave, was responsible for the conversion of many well-know Indians. The ascetic element is again present in Thomas’ emphasis on virginity. In the end he was imprisoned and martyred. Holman Bible Dictionary
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